In recent years, the baking industry has focused its attention on the replacement of several chemical compounds by enzymes. Enzymes that hydrolyze non-starch polysaccharides as xylanases leads to the improvement of rheological properties of dough, bread specific volume and crumb firmness. The purpose of this work was to study the production of the xylanase and others enzymes involved with bread quality from a Brazilian  strain  isolated  of  Thermoascus  aurantiacus  on solid  state fermentation  using different substrates with saline solution (0,01% NH₄ NO_3, 0,01% NH₄H₂PO₄ and 0,01% MgSO₄). After 5 days of incubation the filtrate was used for assays of enzyme activities.

Table1. Effect of different substrates on enzyme production (U/ml).

The fungus produced xylanase, protease and α-amylase independent of the material used as nutrient source. Glucoamylase production was insignificant in all substrates. Xylanase production from corncob was higher than wheat bran. Corncob was lower in protease production. This property is important because the protease can degrade the gluten protein.

Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to CAPES for scholarship.